It’s About Food Quality

I'd imagine it's difficult for anyone to give up anything he or she enjoys. Animal products, however, possess a special kind of fan loyalty. Mention veganism to the protein-obsessed and prepare to be snickered at by shock-and-horror stricken faces. It's no lie — our bodies need protein — but is it worth it to continue to seek out the bulk of our protein from animals? The more that we research and discuss meat, the easier it becomes for us to be wary of its origins and nutritional value.

In a rush to give consumers value, food producers have compromised most meat out there.

For many reasons (the most obvious being industry profit), it has become the norm to expect a giant hunk of meat at every meal. Believe it or not, it wasn't always this way. Consuming low-cost yet highly nutritious meals that pinched pennies and waistlines, the working classes, up until about the 1950s, ate little meat, simply because they couldn't afford it. When their meals did include meat, it was served in inexpensive cuts, like offal, to provide flavor. To put it bluntly, pre-1960, for the average person, meat was never the star of the show.

One needn't look too far back in the history of food to realize that the food industry, in its desire to give consumers the feel of "getting more bang for their buck," hustled to make us feel like we were getting "value." Meanwhile food industry executives reaped the real “value” by cutting not only the quality but also the quantity of actual meat we bought, and hence consumed. It's not a horrible concept — it's simply big-C Capitalism — but the choice to put profits over quality has forever changed our understanding of what our plates should look like. And worse, it has been deleterious to our health.

The reality is that, while veganism may not be for everyone, quality matters. And, in a rush to give consumers value, food producers have jeopardized the quality of most meat out there. Veganism may not be the solution, but “reduced consumption” can very well suit us all.